One of South Africa’s finest hip-hop crews message was that you couldn’t box identities forged through multilingual living in the ghettos.
Articles on Songs of protest
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The protest song “Stimela” remains as much a song about present and future aspirations, as it is of the past.
“What’s Going On” remains relevant today. Even now its plaintive lyrics speak eloquently about a post-9/11 world that’s upside down.
The international community has failed to recognise the new political visions being articulated by young musicians and activists across Africa.
In 1985 The Junkyard Band shifted the paradigm by challenging Reaganomics. Many of those same key issues still rage on today, across the world.
The protest song “Malcolm’s gone” not only pays tribute to one of the most influential black leaders, but provocatively likens him, as a Muslim and so-called enemy of the state, to Jesus Christ.
A 1981 odd and eerie protest song, ‘Ghost Town’, still resonates today. It remains a cry out against injustice, against closed off opportunities by those who have pulled the ladder up.
Top contributors
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Lecturer of English. PhD Candidate in Afrofuturism and African Studies, University of the Western Cape
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Professor of Development Studies, University of Fort Hare
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Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies, Vassar College
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Research Lead at Rhythm Obscura / Lecturer in the School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth
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Associate professor Music and Media, University of Gloucestershire
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Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of the Western Cape
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Lecturer in Anthropology, Catholic University of Malawi